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Newspapers in Fracking Secrecy Case Win Support of Doctors, Scientists

"PITTSBURGH -- In a lawsuit over gas industry secrecy, doctors, scientists, researchers and advocates filed court documents supporting two newspapers seeking access to information that could shed light on the health impacts of gas development, including the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing or fracking. ...

The 'Pittsburgh Post-Gazette' and the 'Observer-Reporter' are seeking to overturn a court order dated January 31, 2012, sealing the record in the case of a Pennsylvania family who sued several gas companies and the state Department of Environmental Protection over health impacts they suffered from gas development operations that polluted their air and water.

The companies are fighting to keep the records sealed.

Represented by the nonprofit environmental law firm Earthjustice, the group filed a brief in court Monday intervening in the case in support of the newspapers.

The intervenors argue that no Pennsylvania court has ever held that court records may be sealed on nothing more than a party's assertion that it would not have settled but for the confidentiality assured by a sealing order."